It is a well known fact that children can easily get their arms out from the car seat harness, but the chest clip is not the solution.

These still shots of this two year old clearly show the issue with the standard five point harness. The 5 point plus shields these gaps to prevent children from using them to remove their shoulders

What is the purpose of the chest clip?
The objective of the chest clip is to help prevent a child from getting their arms out of the harness and slipping the harness off their shoulders. Children push their hands under the harness, see image below for gap that children exploit.

Children expolit the gap between the gap between their torso and harness to leverage their way out of a car seat

The alternative safer solution is the 5 point plus harness that shields the gap that children exploit to push their arms under the harness. The 5 point plus has won the British Baby Products Association Innovation Award as well as the German Kind + Jugend innovation Award. The 5 point plus accessory is available here or you may buy a Cosatto car seat with the 5 point plus incorporated as standard.

*** ANNOUNCEMENT ***Dorel (Maxi-Cosi / Bébé Confort) advised 4th April 2014:“We will recommend the 5-point plus accessory to parents that call us and ask for a solution for their child that is freeing himself from his harness. We will also integrate the 5-point plus accessory in our FAQ at the website.”“The evaluation is that the product works well, and that with this accessory it is quite impossible for children to get out of the 5-point harness.”Read full news story*** END ***Cosatto launch range of seats with 5 point plus incorporated as standard March 2016 Find your nearest stockist

Issues
Not only is the chest clip ineffective at making child seats child proof, the hard bulky object introduces additional risks to a toddler in the event of an accident. It does not matter where the chest clip is positioned, in the event of a collision, the chest clip will generate dangerous localised loads. A toddlers rib cage is not strong, just soft cartilage, and will not offer any protection (see below regarding design of crash dummies). The safer, more effective approach is discussed here https://5pointplus.com/about/how-does-it-work/. The 5 point plus is available as standard on car seats or as a retro-fit accessory (excl USA & Canada).

Joanna Culley BA(hons) MMAA RMIP MIMI www.medical-artist.com

Trauma risks to key organs and arteries
It stands to reason that having a hard bulky chest buckle on a child’s car seat is a significant factor in causing either thoracic or abdominal trauma in the event of an accident. For more information on viscous injury risks please read Viano’s and King’s Biomechanics of Chest and Abdomen Impact research paper

A toddler’s rib cage has not yet ossified and any trauma from a crash will penetrate through to the organs and arteries and not be dissipated around the rib cage.

A child’s chest experiences forces of up to 60g in the event of a collision at just 30mph. The chest buckle may not break on impact creating a hard surface that can exert considerable force to a child’s internal organs.

Internal injuries are not easily identified in young children and hospitals are very reluctant to carry out CT Scans due to radiation risks to young children.

“We will recommend the 5-point plus accessory to parents that call us and ask for a solution for their child that is freeing himself from his harness. We will also integrate the 5-point plus accessory in our FAQ at the website.”

“The evaluation is that the product works well, and that with this accessory it is quite impossible for children to get out of the 5-point harness.”

Rear facing & forward facing seats that are designed to stop children getting their arms out of the harness.

Parents are often asking why isn’t the chest clip available in Europe?

Here are some of the reasons explaining why the chest clip is a flawed solution to the common problem of kids removing their shoulders from the harness:

The harness chest clip can break and pose a laceration and choking hazard (product recalls in 2010)

Risk of damaging wind pipe if clip is too high

If chest clip is too low, then there is a high risk of damaging internal organs. In the USA (January 2011), a child suffered a punctured lung due to a chest clip breaking the child’s rib

Crash tests using P series Dummies cannot detect the impact of chest clips on a child’s ribs as the legislation states that the manikins are constructed as follows:

2.3. Chest
2.3.1. The skeleton of the chest consists of a tubular steel frame on which the arm
joints are mounted. The spine consists of a steel cable with four threaded
terminals.
2.3.2. The skeleton is coated with polyurethane. Measuring equipment can be housed
in the chest cavity.

The measuring equipment that is housed in the chest is an accelerometer to monitor the forces experienced by the manikin during crash testing and not for measuring the forces exerted by the chest clip